Defending Shame

Our culture often views shame in a negative light. However, Paul's use of shame, when properly understood and applied, has much to teach the contemporary church. Filling a lacuna in Pauline scholarship, this book shows how Paul uses shame to admonish and to transform the minds of his readers into the mind of Christ. The author examines Paul's use of shame for moral formation within his Jewish and Greco-Roman context, compares and contrasts Paul's use of shame with other cultural voices, and offers a corrective understanding for today's church. Foreword by Luke Timothy Johnson.

Is shame social? Is it superficial? Is it a morally problematic emotion? In this book, Julien Deonna, Raffaele Rodogno, and Fabrice Teroni propose an original philosophical account of shame aimed at answering these questions.

Few emotions have divided opinion as deeply as shame. Some scholars have argued that shame is essentially a maladaptive emotion used to oppress minorities and reinforce stigmas and traumas, an emotion that leaves the self at the mercy of powerful others. Other scholars, however, have argued that the absence of a sense of shame in a subject—their shamelessness—is tantamount to a vicious moral insensitivity. As the eleven original chapters in this collection attest, however, shame scholars are entering a new phase, one in which scholarship no longer attempts to defend one side of shame against the other, but rather accepts both faces as faithful to the phenomenon to be explained. At the core of our understanding of shame there are profound disagreements about the importance of the Other in shaping our moral identity. As this collection shows by its study of shame, the difficulty of the connection between Self, Other, and morality spans over millennia and cultures and currently animates important debates at the core of feminism and disability studies. Contributors: Mark Alfano, Alessandra Fussi, Lorenzo Greco, JeeLoo Liu, Katrine Krause-Jensen, Heidi L. Maibom, Tjeert Olthof, Imke von Maur, Alba Montes Sánchez, Raffaele Rodogno, Alessandro Salice, Krista K. Thomason, Íngrid Vendrell Ferran

Can a better understanding of shame lead us to see its positive contribution to human life? For many people, shame really is a destructive and health-disrupting force. Too often it cripples and silences victims of other people's shameful behavior, and research has demonstrated clearly the damaging effects of shame on our emotional wellbeing. To combat this, a mini-industry of resources and popular therapies has emerged to help people free themselves from shame. And yet, shame can contribute to a healthy emotional and moral experience. Some behavior is shameful, and sometimes we ought to be ashamed by wrongs we've committed. Eastern and Western cultures alike have long seen a social benefit to shame, and it can rightly cultivate virtues both public and personal. So what are we to make of shame? Philosopher and author Gregg Ten Elshof examines this potent emotion carefully, defining it with more clarity, distinguishing it from embarrassment and guilt, and carefully tracing the positive role shame has played historically in contributing to a well-ordered society. While casting off unhealthy shame is always a positive, For Shame demonstrates the surprising, sometimes unacknowledged ways in which healthy shame is as needed as ever. On the other side of good shame, lie virtues such as decency, self-respect, and dignity—virtues we desire but may not realize shame can grant.

The uses of shame (and shamelessness) in spheres that range from social media and consumerism to polarized politics and mass violence Today, we are caught in a shame spiral—a vortex of mutual shaming that pervades everything from politics to social media. We are shamed for our looks, our culture, our ethnicity, our sexuality, our poverty, our wrongdoings, our politics. But what is the point of all this shaming and countershaming? Does it work? And if so, for whom? In Shame, David Keen explores the function of modern shaming, paying particular attention to how shame is instrumentalized and weaponized. Keen points out that there is usually someone who offers an escape from shame—and that many of those who make this offer have been piling on shame in the first place. Self-interested manipulations of shame, Keen argues, are central to understanding phenomena as wide-ranging as consumerism, violent crime, populist politics, and even war and genocide. Shame is political as well as personal. To break out of our current cycle of shame and shaming, and to understand the harm that shame can do, we must recognize the ways that shame is being made to serve political and economic purposes. Keen also traces the rise of leaders on both sides of the Atlantic who possess a dangerous shamelessness, and he asks how shame and shamelessness can both be damaging. Answering this question means understanding the different types of shame. And it means understanding how shame and shamelessness interact—not least when shame is instrumentalized by those who are selling shamelessness. Keen points to a perverse and inequitable distribution of shame, with the victims of poverty and violence frequently being shamed, while those who benefit tend to exhibit shamelessness and even pride.

In this new guidebook, designated as one of the Top Ten Books of the Year for 1996 by The Journal of the Academy of Parish Clergy, author Robert H. Albers provides both an analysis of and a Biblical and theological reflection upon the human experience of disgrace shame. Albers approaches the subject from a pastoral perspective from which he makes suggestions on how this phenomenon can be dealt with from the background of a faith tradition. He develops and explores new and existing valuable conceptual and pastoral resources to aid people in dealing effectively with the debilitating experiences of disgrace shame. Shame: A Faith Perspective is unique in that it incorporates deliberate theological reflection upon the human experience of disgrace shame. Its value is in ”naming” this phenomenon, analyzing it, and identifying the resources for dealing effectively with this experience. It assists clergy and counselors in identifying this phenomenon and provides conceptual and practical suggestions on how to deal most effectively with disgrace shame. Clergy as well as laypeople can find answers to their questions about the nature of shame and become better equipped to facilitate the process of healing. Utilizing the findings of social sciences, the author provides specific information on shame including: Distinctions between shame and guilt Distinctions between ”discretionary” shame and ”disgrace” shame Identification of the dynamics of disgrace shame Analysis of the defenses used in dealing with disgrace shame Identification of the resources available from the Judeo-Christian tradition in reflecting theologically on the issue of disgrace shame Suggestions for ways in which disgrace shame might be dismantled from the perspective of faith For parish pastors and priests, counselors and therapists, seminary professors teaching pastoral care, and nonordained people within the Christian community, Shame: A Faith Perspective provides a theologically informed method for addressing issues of disgrace shame. Readers can begin to distinguish between guilt and shame in human experience, search out theological resources for understanding, and learn to deal effectively with the experience of disgrace shame.

Explores the role of shame as an important affect in the complex psychodynamics of literary and philosophical works.

Examines how twentieth-century women writers depict female bodily shame and trauma.